Championships - Ladies' British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship 2009
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Hannah Turland - clubhouse leader
20.08.2009
Turland takes the lead at Royal Aberdeen
Fifteen-year-old Hannah Turland from Tidworth, Wiltshire played the round of her young life to come out of the blue and storm into a three-shot lead at the halfway stage of the British Ladies' Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club today.Hannah, in the third last group off the first tee, finished her round between 5.30 and 6pm, just when a day of horrendous wind and rain was improving. She became the first player in the international field to match the testing women’s par of 72 for the so-testing Balgownie links.
Coupled with her opening round of 79 – which had been six shots adrift of leader Lucie Andre from France - Hannah’s seven-over-par tally of 151 saw her leapfrog over the longtime joint clubhouse leaders, Lucie Andre and Northern Ireland’s Danielle McVeigh, two opposing Vagliano Trophy match players.
Danielle had a 79 for 154 and Andre matched that aggregate with an 81.
“I did get the best of the weather late in the round but before that it was horrendous wind and rain. I thought it was still a two-club wind in our faces over the inward nine,” said Hannah, Wiltshire women’s county champion who has putting together a string of improving performances this season.
“No, I won’t lose any sleep over leading a championship like this; That’s what I play golf for. I played well in the Girls’ Home Internationals (helping England win the title at Fairhaven) and was well up among the qualifiers for the match-play stages of the British girls’ championship at West Lancs last week, so it’s really just a continuation of that,” she said.
He outward half was a mixed bag of birdies (fourth and fifth) and bogeys (second, third and eighth) before she “made” her round with three birdies in a row over a difficult stretch into the wind and rain.
She holed a 4ft putt for a 2 after a six-iron off the tee at the short 11th, had to go on her knees in a buniker at the 12th to cope with a bad lie, and played a magnificent recovery shot to 12ft from the stick and downed the putt for a believe-it-or-not birdie. Then she holed a 20ft birdie putt at the 13th.
Even a double bogey 6 at the 15th and another shot dropped at the 16th were not going to shake Hannah’s confidence.
She parred the short 17th and then played a great five-iron third shot at the last, holing a 3ft putt for a birdie 3 to come home in 35 and surge clear of the field.
Andre and McVeigh had battled through atrocious conditions to share the lead until Miss Turland swept past late in the day.
The weather was even worse than it had been for Wednesday’s first round. Tournament director Susan Simpson clocked the wind speed at gusts of 40mph, an increase of 10mph, And the new bad weather factor was rain and lots of it, circling the Aberdeen area for hour after hour..
Up with the larks for a 7.40am start, Royal Co Down Ladies' member McVeigh was the first to show that it was possible to break 80 despite the adverse weather. Out in arguably the worst of the conditions, the 6ft University of Ireland Maynooth student followed up her opening 75 with a 79 to set the clubhouse target of 10-over-par 154.
“I played better than I did in Wednesday’s wind and scored four shots worse but it was much more difficult out there today, very unpleasant weather,” said Danielle, winner of the Welsh women’s open amateur stroke-play championship earlier in the season,
She had birdies at the long second and long sixth but had a double bogey 6 at the ninth to give back the shots she had gained.
She had another double bogey 6 at the 10th but covered the remaining eight holes in four over par, which was good going in the wind and rain.
In contrast to McVeigh’s stout performance, one of her playing partners, Rachel Jennings, who also played for Great Britain & Ireland in the recent Vagliano Trophy match against the Continent of Europe in Hamburg, had a disastrous day.
Up with the leaders after an opening round of 76, Rachel nosedived out of contention with an 18-over-par 90 for 166, then said: “It was awful out there. I took 52 shots for the second nine into the wind and rain. That’s the first time since I was about 14 years old that I have scored as high as a 90.”
Rachel has her 21st birthday next week.
She did not have a single par on the inward half. She had a quadruple bogey 9 at the 12th and doubles at the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th.
There was an early warning that Lucie Andre, who had come in late with a 73 to lead by two at the end of Wednesday’s play, was having more trouble coping with the combination of the high wind and driving rain than she had with the half-gale alone on Wednesday. She took 40 shots to the turn – six more than in the first round – and she finished with an 81 to join McVeigh on the 154 mark.
“It didn’t help that I started with two 6s, so that I was three over par after only two holes, “ said Lucie.
“But I felt better when I birdied the fifth and sixth. Then I lost it again with bogeys at the seventh, eighth and ninth, double bogeys at the 10th and 11th and a bogey at the 12th.
“It was not nice out.there. I did not enjoy it as I did in the first round – but I am still in contention, which is a little bit surprising but shows you how bad the weather was for everybody.”
The stage is set for a super last day of golf – if only the weather will play its part and give the girls a chance to produce the quality play of which they are capable.
Young Turland leads by three shot s from McVeigh and Andre who are only a shot in front of“local” Scottish international Laura Murray (she hails from Alford in Aberdeenshire) and Welsh girl cap Gemma Bradbury from Cottrell Park..
Then comes Charlotte Wild (Mere), the 19-year-old winner of the English women’s stroke –play title recently on 156, one ahead of English mid-amateur champion Lucy Williams (Mid Herts)..
To qualify for the final two rounds, players had to score 22 over par 166 or better.
Royal Aberdeen Golf Club's professional staff came to the aid of a Continental competitor in distress as she waited to tee off this morning in the second round of the British women's open amateur stroke play championship over the Balgownie links. Zala Jenko, who has travelled all the way from Slovenia with her mother, watched in anguish as her trolley and the heavy bag of clubs blew over in the wind. The head of her driver snapped off when it hit the ground. The thought of tackling the Balgownie links in worse weather of wind and rain than prevailed on the opening day without a driver galvanised Zala's mum into action. She ran over to the professional's shop and explained the position. Golf clubs cost a lot of money in Slovenia - but the Royal Aberdeen pro David Ross and his assistant Jonas Hedberg came up with a replacement driver and said Zala could have it free of charge!
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